African Burial Ground declared a National Monument
The thousands of Africans buried in Lower Manhattan for the past 400 years were bestowed one of the nations highest honors this week when President Bush declared the cemetery a National Monument.
The African Burial Ground spans five blocks of Lower Manhattan and is the final resting place for an estimated 20,000 free and enslaved Africans from the Colonial era. A memorial, designed by Rodney Leon, is planned for the corner of Duane and Elk Sts.
The African Burial Ground was discovered in 1991, during construction of the federal building at the edge of the memorial. Declaring the site a National Monument protects it from future development.